Do you think Geroy Simon had it easy? Not a chance. As Ed Willes wrote back in in 2005, the CFL’s all-time leading receiver — traded Thursday from the B.C. Lions to the Saskatchewan Roughriders — lost track of the number of times he got cut from teams. Hard to believe …

By Ed Willes

The Province

Geroy Simon starts to count the number of times he’s been cut which, as things turn out, isn’t as easy as it sounds.

There were the four times in ’97: first by Cincinnati, then Philadelphia, then Pittsburgh, then Tampa. The Bucs cut him twice the next year making it three times by one team and giving him the rare natural hat trick.

He made the Winnipeg Blue Bombers the next year but was placed on their practice roster. “That’s like getting cut,” Simon said Wednesday. Two years later he thought he’d made the Kansas City Chiefs when he was dealt the nine of hearts one last time.

“That’s one thing,” he continued. “When you see guys get cut, you feel for them and you know what they’re going through. But you’re just happy it’s not you. That’s just the way it is. Everyone gets cut eventually.”

Given his history then, you don’t have to probe too deeply to understand what Simon’s career with the Lions has meant to him. Prior to signing with the Leos, he’d bounced around football like a bad cheque and was on the verge of quitting the game. Now, four years later, he’s regarded as one of the CFL’s premier players while earning the unqualified respect of the organization and his teammates.

And the best part? He hasn’t had to sweat out cut-down day for a while.

“I appreciate everything the organization has done for me,” Simon said as the Leos prepared for tonight’s preseason game with the Calgary Stampeders. “When they ask me to do something, I’m there. I’ve been on the other side when they don’t want you to represent the organization.

“I’ve been through a lot, man. To be in this position with this team is very special.”

Simon’s personal ascendency, in fact, mirrors the Lions’ larger rise over the last three years and while there are a number of developments which explain the franchise’s turnaround — Bob Ackles, Wally Buono, Dave Dickenson and Casey Printers are principal among them — Simon fits in there somewhere.

Since being installed in the feature slotback spot in Buono’s offence, Simon’s stats have improved in each of his three full seasons, capped off by last year’s monster 103-catch, 1,750-yard, 14-touchdown campaign.

Over that same span, the Lions’ win totals have improved from 10 to 11 to 13, capped off by last year’s appearance in the Western Final before 55,000 fans at B.C. Place.

“There were barely 13,000 fans at my first game here,” the 29-year-old Maryland product said. “Now we’ve sold 18,000 season tickets.

“I couldn’t believe some of the things that went on (under the preternaturally relaxed Adam Rita) that first year,” Simon continued, laughing at the memory. “You practised whenever. You’d meet whenever. If you wanted to come in late, it was no real problem. I didn’t like the direction but I didn’t have a lot of choice in the matter.”

That, of course, has changed. Simon’s receiving skills are self-evident — “There’s no doubt Geroy is better than guys playing in the NFL,” said Dickenson — but he finds other aspects of his status within the team as meaningful and rewarding. He is now part of the Lions’ leadership group and has helped establish an atmosphere of professionalism and accountability within the locker-room. He’s part of the core which fans have come to identify with the team.

Times, in short, are good. And the Lions never have to worry about Simon taking his success for granted.

“It used to be constant turnover every year,” he said. “We had Damon (Allen) and Alfred Jackson but not a lot of guys who you could count on being B.C. Lions.

“Now you have a group of guys who are here every year. That’s big for fans. If they buy a guy’s jersey, they want to know he’s going to be there the next game.”

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